Cynthia Nixon, the Working Families Party candidate for governor of New York, recently spoke out against the state’s 2 percent cap on annual spending. She also came out against the state’s 2 percent cap on increases in local property taxes. READ

On the North Fork and Shelter Island, we don’t have to wait for truly warm weather or notice the yellow signal flare of forsythia to tell us winter is a memory. We’ve witnessed spring on the wing with the arrival of the magnificent fish hawks, the ospreys, returning from their Florida and Caribbean winter quarters. READ

On Saturday evening, with dusk soon to arrive, the wind rising and temperatures dropping, rescuers put their own lives on the line to save three men whose boat, a 34-foot Chris Craft, had struck rocks in the challenging waters of Plum Gut off Orient Point. READ

The following editorial was published in the April 12, 1968 issue of The Suffolk Times, one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., 50 years ago. It was taken from The Christian Science Monitor.

In 1837, First Universalist Church was built on a sweeping curve along Main Road in Southold, opposite the Civil War memorial. Its trustees had voted two years earlier, in October 1835, to build a house of worship on that site.

Within hours of the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., students who had seen their friends gunned down began demanding change. These students’ voices, which have the earmarks of a budding national movement, may very well herald the start of the kind of discussion that must happen in America about the “right” to own military-style firearms, and gun control in general. READ

In this space last July, we commended an executive order signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to expand voter registration opportunities in New York. The executive order directed every state agency to make voter registration forms available and offer assistance in filling them out. The order also established a new voter registration task force. READ

As the New Suffolk Common School District and its residents grapple with the future of the historic red schoolhouse, built in 1907, it’s safe to wonder how sustainable such small districts can be in the years to come, given the changing demographics of the North Fork. READ

Most of us on the East End have the luxury of enjoying all that local farms have to offer from a distance — a safe distance, if you will. We stop at the farm stands and gather up fresh, seasonal vegetables for our plates. READ